WHOM DOES OUR HOPE INCLUDE?

(Preached on Sunday, December 5, 2004)

His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.  He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;                                -Isaiah 11:3

 

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Nicholas on the Church Calendar.  Saint Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in fourth-century Asia Minor.  A number of traditions about him have developed over the years in a variety of countries.  In one tradition, Nicholas secretly provided gold so that three girls could get married instead of being sold into slavery.

St. Nicholas is remembered because, like Jesus, he did not judge by external means — by what his eyes saw or his ears heard — but by the heart, by what he knew was right in the eyes of God.

 

That is the kind of person Isaiah spoke of in this beautiful vision he lifted up for the people of Israel.  Like last Sunday, we are in the presence of true glory and amazing poetry.  Again, we should let these words wash over us and baptize us in their beauty and joy.

The prophet gives us a breathtaking view of a world where shalom, God’s peace, has conquered all. 

(Isaiah does not actually use the word shalom in this passage.  But these verses are arguably the greatest expression of shalom in the Hebrew scriptures.)

 

Isaiah’s vision of what is to come is inspiring. 

He sees God’s reconciliation embracing the whole of creation.  Like all good poets, he uses metaphor to help us envision this new world of harmony.

When he writes:

“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,

and the calf and the lion and the yearling together,

and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall feed side by side,

their young shall lied down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The suckling child shall play over the hole of the cobra,

and the weaned child shall put his hand in the adder’s den.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord

as the waters cover the sea.”

He is not just speaking about the animal kingdom. 

What he is trying to help us understand is that God’s vision is for a day when men and women will cease to victimize and prey on each other.

That the wolf — the overly canny businessperson, say — will learn gentleness.  That the fierceness of the warmakers or the polluters will subside, as they see interests other than their own.  That our children will be able to play and dance without the poisonous interference of those vipers and cobras that want to sell them cigarettes or narcotics, or market to them with images of bodily perfection no normal human can hope to achieve.  That the predatory in all of us will shrink, since predation is not our true nature. 

Isaiah’s vision speaks of a new world where relationships shall be reordered, rearranged, and divisions shall be healed, and there shall be peace.

 

Such peace and reconciliation will come through a new kind of person and a new version of justice.  This person will be intimately connected with God and will not function in the world as people normally have functioned, with fear and suspicion of others.

“And the Spirit of God shall rest upon him,

the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

the spirit of good counsel and strength,

the spirit of knowledge and awe for God.

His delight shall be in the awe of God.”

And then comes the crunch:

“He shall not judge by what his eyes see,

or decide by what his ears hear.”

 

We do that all the time!

We make superficial judgments. 

We are fond of saying: “I saw it with my own eyes!” or “I heard them say it.”

In our social justice efforts, we are still limited to the criteria of the world: we judge by what we see and hear.

 

But God’s new human being will go far deeper than that.

The new human being will not deal with surface issues, nor use the world’s criteria. 

No, the new human being will introduce a new kind of righteousness, a new kind of equity and fairness.

As far as I know, we have only one clear example of this new human being. 

Jesus came among us as that unique person who did not judge by what his eyes saw nor decide by what his ears heard.

He saw Simon Peter, a loud and fickle character, and told him he was going to be a rock of faith. 

He saw an agent from the hated Roman authorities, Zacchaeus the tax collector, and with a justice beyond justice, Jesus went to dinner with him. 

Jesus saw a woman at his feet, and heard her accusers declare that she had been seized in the act of adultery. 

He saw a person who needed some true love, and sent her on her way as a forgiven person. 

Others, even his own disciples, saw street children as a nuisance.  He saw them as signs of the kingdom of God, and placed his hands on them in blessing. 

The Jewish nationalists around Jesus saw Roman soldiers as scum, but Jesus said if a soldier makes you carry his gear for a mile, be generous and willingly go a second mile.

 

This brand new way of seeing and living, this unique style that is Jesus’ thing, is the way of grace. 

Grace is Divine generosity, abundant as a cup that is full and running over.  Jesus was not content that people treat each other with tolerance, he offered more than tolerance.

Grace is not a matter of rights, but of redeeming gift.  

Jesus did not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear.

He pours himself out in love for people, never knowing or calculating when to stop.

 

The Gospel is all about people who were once outsiders, experiencing the hospitality of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus came to show us that no one is an outsider in God’s eyes, but we are all loved and welcomed home.

That is the Good News we need to hear and constantly proclaim.

Historically, though, the church has been a conveyor of some very bad news too: some have been kept outsiders by the arrogant exclusionism of the church, always using Scripture to give respectability to its rejections.

Slaves had to hear the bad news for centuries, as did black people. 

Women still hear it in many churches, and now gay people are being told loudly they do not belong.

 

The world more and more needs to hear this Good News.

If there was ever any doubt, NBC and CBS, two of the major television networks in the U.S. demonstrated that truth this past week.